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Ryan O'Reilly admitted that he's pretty excited about potentially playing with Rasmus Dahlin in Buffalo.

The Sabres own the first pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and they're expected to take Dahlin first overall. "I was really excited, obviously," O'Reilly said. "I've actually watched him at World Juniors and different things and highlights of him. Obviously, it's not official yet, but I hope, I'm pretty sure, we'll be taking him. I'm excited. Watching him, he's so dynamic with what he's doing with the puck. He's just an elite player that any team he goes to he makes better, so I'm definitely very, very excited for that." May 12 - 10:14 AM

O'Reilly was hard on himself after the season as he felt responsible for the Sabres' struggles. Even though he was one of the team's best players with 24 goals and 61 points in 81 contests, he noted that as one of the team's leaders in minutes (20:49 per game), he bears responsibility. He also added that he wants to stay in Buffalo. May 11 - 3:28 PM

Ryan O’Reilly has been selected as one of the nominees for the Lady Byng Trophy.

The Sabres had a disappointing year, but O’Reilly managed to put up a respectable 24 goals and 61 points in 81 games this season. He also racked up just two penalty minutes in 2017-18. Vegas’ William Karlsson and Florida’s Aleksander Barkov are the other two nominees for the Lady Byng Award. Apr 20 - 6:38 PM

Ryan O'Reilly might be a casualty of the Buffalo Sabres looking to make changes this off-season.

O'Reilly made headlines last week during the exit interview when he said that he at times lost passion for the game of hockey during the season, causing an uproar amongst the fanbase. However, TSN's Bob McKenzie said on Friday that he believes the Sabres had been shopping him around before those comment were made, saying: "Quite aside from his comments, he was one of the guys that I think they were thinking of trading anyways,". Teams looking for solidify their center ice position include the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Arizona Coyotes and the Carolina Hurricanes. At this point, we'd consider it more likely than not that O'Reilly will be dealt. As usual, the NHL Draft is usually the date where the biggest names get dealt. This year's draft is scheduled for June 22nd. Apr 14 - 4:35 PM

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O'Reilly was hard on himself after the season as he felt responsible for the Sabres' struggles. Even though he was one of the team's best players with 24 goals and 61 points in 81 contests, he noted that as one of the team's leaders in minutes (20:49 per game), he bears responsibility. He also added that he wants to stay in Buffalo.

Ryan O’Reilly has been selected as one of the nominees for the Lady Byng Trophy.

The Sabres had a disappointing year, but O’Reilly managed to put up a respectable 24 goals and 61 points in 81 games this season. He also racked up just two penalty minutes in 2017-18. Vegas’ William Karlsson and Florida’s Aleksander Barkov are the other two nominees for the Lady Byng Award.

Ryan O'Reilly might be a casualty of the Buffalo Sabres looking to make changes this off-season.

O'Reilly made headlines last week during the exit interview when he said that he at times lost passion for the game of hockey during the season, causing an uproar amongst the fanbase. However, TSN's Bob McKenzie said on Friday that he believes the Sabres had been shopping him around before those comment were made, saying: "Quite aside from his comments, he was one of the guys that I think they were thinking of trading anyways,". Teams looking for solidify their center ice position include the Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks, Arizona Coyotes and the Carolina Hurricanes. At this point, we'd consider it more likely than not that O'Reilly will be dealt. As usual, the NHL Draft is usually the date where the biggest names get dealt. This year's draft is scheduled for June 22nd.

After claiming 19-of-33 draws in the Sabres' season finale on Saturday, O'Reilly has won 1,274 faceoffs in 2017-18. That tops the record of 1,268 faceoff wins that Rod Brind'Amour established with Carolina in 2005-06. O'Reilly finished the campaign with a 60.0 winning percentage.

O'Reilly will finish off the season with eight points over his last six games to get him to 24 goals and 61 points in 81 games this season. It's the most points he has recorded in a season since he had 64 during the 2013-14 season as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. Sam Reinhart and Jason Pominville also scored in the loss.

Ryan O'Reilly found the back of the net in Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.

O'Reilly opened the scoring just 30 seconds into the game, when he beat Sens goalie Craig Anderson with a backhander on a breakaway. Unfortunately for the Sabres, they allowed Ottawa to score three unanswered goals. O'Reilly finished the night with an even rating and five shots on goal in 20:32 of ice time. The 27-year-old is riding a four-game point streak. He's also scored in three of his last four outings. O'Reilly is up to 23 goals and 59 points in 79 games this season. Kyle Okposo also scored for the Sabres on Wednesday night.

Ryan O'Reilly scored a goal and registered two assists in a 7-4 win against Nashville on Saturday.

O'Reilly has only been held off the scoresheet once in his last four games. This was also his fifth three-point game of the 2017-18 campaign. He's up to 22 goals and 57 points in 77 contests this season.

Ryan O'Reilly netted his 21st goal of the year in Thursday's 6-3 loss to Detroit.

O'Reilly's power-play goal 7:11 into the first period gave the Sabres a 2-0 lead, but the scoresheet featured mostly Red Wings after that. He has notched two points in his last three outings to give him 54 points on the season.

Ryan O'Reilly picked up a goal and an assist in Monday's 5-3 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

O'Reilly did all of his damage in the second period, as he picked up a helper on Zemgus Girgensons' go-ahead tally (3-2) at the 13:30 mark of the frame. He then added an insurance marker 2:05 later to make it 4-2 for Buffalo. O'Reilly finished the night with a plus-1 rating, two shots on goal and a takeaway in 20:41 of ice time. The 27-year-old has 19 goals and 49 points in 65 games this season. He's also riding a four-game point streak. Sam Reinhart, Jason Pominville and Johan Larsson also found the back of the net for the Sabres in the victory.

Ryan O'Reilly recorded one goal and two assists in a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay on Tuesday night.

O'Reilly has two goals and six points in the last two games. He is being leaned on more now that the Sabres don't have Jack Eichel due to injury and so far he has been excellent. O'Reilly's fantasy value has received a significant boost.

Ryan O'Reilly carried the Sabres with three points in Sunday's losing effort against Colorado.

O'Reilly notched a goal and two assists to surpass the 400-point plateau in the 5-4 loss. O'Reilly now has 17 goals and 40 points in 55 games this season. It took the center 625 NHL games to reach the milestone. O'Reilly stepped up in Buffalo's first game without Jack Eichel and he will be counted on to lead on and off the ice until the team's top player returns.

Sam Reinhart dropped a perfect pass to O'Reilly who fired the puck into the top of the net to open the scoring. O'Reilly, who has 10 points in his last 10 games, has 14 goals and 35 points in 50 games this season. Johan Larsson also scored for the Sabres.

Ryan O'Reilly picked up an assist in a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres.

O'Reilly's assist came on Jake McCabe's shutout buster with just over five minutes remaining in the game. O'Reilly has now picked up nine points over his last nine games, bringing his point total up to 34 in 49 games. Considering his point totals over the past few seasons, he could be due for a second half resurgence and is someone to keep an eye on.

Depth Charts

Jack Eichel is excited that the Sabres have the top pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.

Buffalo is expected to select potential cornerstone defender Rasmus Dahlin next month. Dahlin has the skill set to help the Sabres right away and his puck-moving ability should be beneficial to a player like Eichel. "I've seen him play and I've talked to a few guys about him," Eichel said. "Obviously, he's got some pretty incredible highlights. It seems like he's a special, special player."

Ryan O'Reilly admitted that he's pretty excited about potentially playing with Rasmus Dahlin in Buffalo.

The Sabres own the first pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and they're expected to take Dahlin first overall. "I was really excited, obviously," O'Reilly said. "I've actually watched him at World Juniors and different things and highlights of him. Obviously, it's not official yet, but I hope, I'm pretty sure, we'll be taking him. I'm excited. Watching him, he's so dynamic with what he's doing with the puck. He's just an elite player that any team he goes to he makes better, so I'm definitely very, very excited for that."

Reinhart just completed his entry-level contract. "I have not spoken to his agent yet about a contract," Buffalo GM Jason Botterill said. "We felt where we were in the standings, it wasn't a situation where we wanted to talk contracts during the year. Craig Oster certainly has quite a few players on our team, and I'll be reaching out to him in the next couple months." Reinhart tied for the team lead with 25 goals in 2017-18 and he posted 50 points in 82 contests.

Larsson recorded a goal and an assist on Monday night against Toronto. "It's probably just a little more opportunity at the end of the years with trades and injuries," he said. "That could be a factor, too, as well. But I don't think too much right now. I'm just playing and feel good about it." Larsson has posted 10 goals and 21 points in 32 games during the month of March. Larsson has accounted for 16 goals and 41 points in the other 210 games he has appeared in during his career. He also has three goals and seven points in 14 games during April.

Benoit Pouliot will be a healthy scratch in Wednesday's game against the Ottawa Senators.

Pouliot has 13 goals and 19 points in 74 games this season. This will be the second time in four games that he'll serve as a healthy scratch. Kevin Porter, Josh Gorges and Matt Tennyson wil also watch the game from the press box.

Girgensons will miss what little is left of the season as a result. He took a puck to the face on March 23 and had been wearing a shield before having a procedure Wednesday. He had seven goals and 15 points in 71 games this season.

Jordan Nolan found the back of the net in Wednesday's 4-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes.

He managed to put an end to his 41-game goal drought in the process. Nolan scored the game-tying goal at the 11:42 mark of the opening period, but Arizona managed to go ahead before the end of the frame thanks to a power-play goal from Derek Stepan. Nolan finished the game with a plus-1 rating, two penalty minutes, one shot on goal and four hits in 10:44 of ice time. The 28-year-old has three goals and four assists in 62 games this season.

The Buffalo Sabres are giving Scott Wilson a bigger role with Kyle Okposo sidelined.

Okposo sustained a concussion on Thursday and missed Saturday's contest as a result. With him unavailable, Wilson was moved to the top line and the top power-play unit. Those are obviously juicy roles, but Wilson hasn't capitalized on them yet. He had no points and a minus-one rating while logging 22:23 minutes of ice time in Buffalo's 2-1 shootout loss to Vegas on Saturday.

Jason Pominville scored his 14th goal of the season in Monday's 5-2 loss to Toronto.

Pominville has recorded two goals and two assists over a four-game point streak. He has been skating on the top line alongside Jack Eichel. Pominville scored 13 times for Minnesota in 78 appearances last season. However, he only has 32 points through 79 outings in 2017-18 when he had 47 points with the Wild.

Zach Bogosian was Buffalo's nominee for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy.

The award goes annually to the player who "best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community." Bogosian has done charitable work through "The Bogo Bunch Foundation" since 2015. The NHL will narrow down the list to three finalists on April 30.

McCabe underwent surgery on his thumb earlier this month and he hasn't played since Feb. 6. "Jake has been progressing well in his recovery from his previous injury, but we decided that this was a good opportunity to take care of a problem that he has been dealing with for a while," Sabres GM Jason Botterill said. "Jake will have time to fully recover before the beginning of the 2018-19 season."

Josh Gorges, who can become an unrestricted free agent this off-season, isn't ready to retire yet.

"I'll take some time, then when it's enough I'll reevaluate things and kind of see what's in store," Gorges said. "Obviously, there's one thing left undone, and that's winning it all. It'd be hard to say that I don't want to go back and have a chance at that. ... That fire to win that is still there, so we'll wait to see what the summer brings." The 33-year-old defenseman appeared in 34 games during the 2017-18 campaign.

It appears Victor Antipin will be heading back to the KHL after spending one season in the NHL as a member of the Buffalo Sabres.

The Sabres signed defenseman Lawrence Pilut earlier this week who was named as the defenseman of the year in the Swedish Hockey League. Antipin never really appeared to settle with the Sabres, playing just 47 games this season and picking up 10 points. He didn't confirm his status for next year at the end of the year, but it's believed that he could be leaning towards a return to the KHL.

Justin Falk will be a healthy scratch in Saturday's game against the Florida Panthers.

Falk has suited up in Buffalo's previous six games. he has one goal, one assist and a minus-16 rating in 46 games. Josh Gorges will take his spot in the lineup. Kevin Porter and Matt Tennyson will also watch the game from the press box.

"He'll be healthy for next year, which is a great thing," Sabres GM Jason Botterill said Wednesday. Lehner will become a restricted free agent this off-season and he will need a $4 million qualifying offer from Buffalo or else he can become an unrestricted free agent. It's unclear at this time if the team plans to bring him back.

Johnson is open to returning to the Sabres, but that would depend on the team's willingness to make changes. "I know I can be a good goalie in this league and I showed that when things were the way they should be," Johnson said Monday. "I have to see the change, whether it's through players or somehow convince me through contract, through whatever it is, to come back." He posted a 10-17-3 record with a 3.55 goals-against average and .891 save percentage in 36 games.